Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality Symposium: “Gendered Bodies/Gendered Lives”

Friday, February 19, 2016, 8 am to 6 pm
Campus: 
Dayton
Audience: 
Future Students
Current Students
Faculty
Staff
Alumni
The public

Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality Symposium: “Gendered Bodies/Gendered Lives”

When: Friday, February 19, 2016
Where: Wright State University, Dayton, OH 

Maurice Merleau-Ponty once said, “The body is our general medium for having a world.” It is also the general medium through which the world has us. This conference will explore diverse embodiments and the various meanings made of them, and how bodies shape both experience and access to justice, equity, and well-being.

Students, faculty, staff, and community members are invited to propose papers, panels, workshops, roundtables and performances as part of a day-long series of conversations about intersectional knowledge production, and the confluence of identities, oppressions, and social change solutions.

Successful proposals will engage the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, age, (dis)ability and/or nation, etc. Recognizing that social change often begins with critical analysis of culture, structure, and the status quo, this symposium offers opportunities for sharing diverse scholarship and effective models of social change. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: the politics of bodies and language; sexual and/or reproductive health and justice; transgender bodies and identities; violence against marginalized bodies and the effects of cumulative or insidious trauma; literary, film, and other visual media explorations of intersectionality; economic crisis and labor equity; histories of feminist, civil rights, LGBTQA, and other social movements; comparative and transnational analyses; new media and/or cultural activism; politics and grassroots organizing; the possibilities and challenges involved in coalition-building; anti-violence work; and backlash against those who work for social justice. Contributions from all disciplines as well as interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.

Keynote: Dr. Brittany Cooper, Rutgers University,

“#SayHerName: Toward a Gender Inclusive Movement for Racial Justice"

Dr. Brittany Cooper is Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University. She is a Black feminist theorist who specializes in the study of Black women’s intellectual history, Hip Hop generation feminism, and race and gender representation in popular culture. Her forthcoming book Race Women: Gender and the Making of a Black Public Intellectual Tradition (University of Illinois Press) examines the long history of Black women’s thought leadership in the U.S., with a view toward reinvigorating contemporary scholarly and popular conversations about Black feminism. In addition to a weekly column on race and gender politics at Salon.com, she has appeared on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Show, All In With Chris Hayes, and Disrupt with Karen Finney.  She is also a co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective, a popular feminist blog. In 2013 and 2014, she was named to the Root.com’s Root 100, an annual list of Top Black Influencers.

 

Presented by the Wright State University Women’s Center, African & African-American Studies Program, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, with support from the Wright State Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center and Office of LGBTQA Affairs, and in coalition with the Miami University Women’s Center, Black World Studies Program, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.

For information, contact
Hope Jennings
Program Director, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
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